Meet Nikki Toyama-Szeto, CSA’s New Executive Director

Christians for Social Action is thrilled to announce the appointment of Nikki Toyama-Szeto as Executive Director!

Nikki Toyama-Szeto

Read an introduction to Nikki by CSA board member, Kathy Khang.

Nikki Toyama-Szeto brings over 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience to CSA, having previously served both International Justice Mission and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, where she worked for many years as the program director for Urbana Missions Conference. She is the author of several books, including Partnering with the Global Church (Urbana Onward) and More Than Serving Tea: Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith.

“CSA is in my DNA”

A mechanical engineer and patent holder with a degree from Stanford, Nikki left the lucrative field of engineering to pursue ministry full-time. She embodies her commitment to living out God’s call to love and serve “the least of these,” through her life’s work serving people on the margins. Nikki is passionate about both faith-rooted social justice work, and holistic evangelism.

“CSA is in my DNA,” Nikki says. “From working with college students, and challenging them to think through how their major and career can help build God’s kingdom, to teaching activists how to consider justice through a Christian frame, I have worked to steward well the power and privilege I have, to make space for additional voices to be at the table. CSA’s vision of a world ‘on earth, as it is in heaven’ is one that I feel uniquely equipped and called to help carry out.”

CSA founder and current board chair, Ron Sider, remarks: “Nikki’s faith commitment and her vocational choices demonstrate powerfully that she is committed to thoughtful biblical reflection, just action, and completely pro-life public policies. CSA has long been the home for biblically faithful followers of Jesus who seek to pursue holistic ministry, and it is clear that in Nikki, we have found a leader who is both called and equipped to carry this important work into the future.”

If you’d like to support Nikki in her first year at CSA, please consider giving a donation.

Also, Nikki wants to hear from you and she might be coming to your neighborhood! If you want to stay up to date on her plans, click here so we can keep you posted on upcoming events.

For more on Nikki and what this exciting news means for CSA, check out Kathy Khang’s insightful introduction.

You may also want to read

The Surprising Numbers About the AAPI Community

By Nikki Toyama-Szeto

Sometimes data is just numbers.  But I like to tell my kids that statistics are numbers that tell a story.  In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, today’s list includes places to find data about the Asian American Pacific Islander community. 

A Church for Dreamers: DACA

By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
I think I dropped a plate and almost broke it when I heard the news of President Trump’s plan to end DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals).